Streaming
State of Play
Revised Sep 3, 2026The moment. YouTube now takes 1 hour 46 minutes of the average American’s day against 1 hour 31 minutes for live television, per Attest’s attention economy report, and a separate study put YouTube ahead of live TV on the same measure. Streaming reached 48.2% of US ad-supported viewing in Q2. Sony opened Live TV on PS5 with more than 100 free ad-supported channels sold through Publica and PubMatic. Apple TV raised its US price to $15 a month, its second increase in a year. Netflix’s 27-minute Grand Theft Auto VI look drew 31.1 million views in four days and ranked first in 87 of the 93 countries it tracks.
The tension. The screen taking the most attention is the one buyers still price as digital. Tatari makes the gap literal — CNN draws 240 million monthly YouTube views against 550,000 in primetime — and Tubular’s data says the reason is form: viewers take their YouTube sports in Shorts, not in the long-form television shape the ad pitch describes.
Who’s moving. Sony, turning a console into a channel store. Apple, pricing up before the Ted Lasso finale. Netflix, licensing Warner Bros. catalog, cross-posting with YouTube travel stars and putting a game trailer at the top of its own chart. YouTube TV, ingesting ESPN’s app-exclusive library into the channel guide. Xbox, shopping more than a dozen game franchises for over $300 million. Gracenote, on the 85% who want games on the home screen.
What the desk is watching. Whether a free tier actually lands at Netflix or Disney+ now that Sony and Paramount have made FAST a default, and whether the Shorts habit keeps live-sports money away from the largest video service in the country.
Streaming churn undercuts the ad plans built around subscriber loyalty
Rising subscriber churn across streaming services is making it harder for marketers to rely on stable, addressable audiences when planning campaigns. As viewers hop between services, buyers face more waste and less certainty that their target audience is even watching.
Streaming outgrows linear in upfront, but CPMs fall everywhere
Upfront ad commitments to streaming jumped 30% to $17.2B, while broadcast and cable fell 5.3% and 7.7%. CPMs dropped across all screens, showing sellers gained volume but lost pricing leverage.
Disney+ and Hulu bring video podcasts in-house via iHeartMedia deal
Disney is licensing six iHeartMedia video podcasts, including Pod Meets World and Jonas Brothers’ Hey Jonas!, for Disney+ and Hulu. It’s a low-cost way to add fan-community content and companion IP tie-ins to streaming libraries as podcast video grows.
Disney’s streaming turn takes center stage in earnings breakdown
A media analyst unpacks Disney’s Q2 earnings on Bloomberg TV, weighing streaming profitability against legacy TV decline. The framing matters as Disney’s playbook becomes the template other legacy media companies are judged against.
Tubi renews Gracenote deal for content data, programmatic ad IDs
Tubi is expanding its Gracenote partnership to power natural-language content search and test content IDs in programmatic bid streams. It’s a bet that better metadata drives both discovery and more targeted ad inventory as Tubi and Fox One scale.
RTL Group’s streaming arm offsets TV and Fremantle declines
RTL’s streaming revenue jumped 27.2% as traditional TV ads and Fremantle production fell. The Sky Deutschland merger makes RTL+ Germany’s third-largest streamer, part of a wider European broadcast consolidation wave.
Prime-time upfront dollars rise 9% to $33.7B as streaming grabs 30% more
Total prime-time upfront ad commitments climbed 9% to $33.7 billion even as CPMs fell 6%, with streaming volume up 30%. Buyers are trading rate for reach, pushing dollars into streaming faster than linear can hold price.
Netflix nearly doubles ad commitments, wraps 2026 upfronts
Netflix says every major agency signed on, nearly doubling ad commitments year over year, while also getting MRC accreditation for its Ads Suite. It’s the clearest sign yet that Netflix’s ad business has moved from experiment to must-buy.
World Cup hydration breaks turned into prime ad inventory
FIFA’s new mid-half hydration breaks lost under 3% of audience, far better than halftime’s 18-20% drop. Fox Sports used the low-churn windows to sell added inventory, showing tentpole broadcasters new ways to monetize live sports beyond kickoff and halftime.
Report: Kushner and Iger group nears deal to buy the Lakers
TBPN flags a Kushner-Iger investor group reportedly closing in on Lakers ownership. A media exec buying a marquee NBA franchise would reshape sports rights leverage and streaming carriage talks around the team.
Disney weighs a free ad-supported tier for Disney+
Disney is exploring a FAST-style free tier following Paramount’s similar move, aiming to monetize unwatched library content and expand ad reach. Analysts argue it curbs churn by keeping downgraded subscribers in-ecosystem rather than losing them outright.
Peacock turns a profit as Comcast preps NBCU-cable split
Comcast’s Q2 results show Peacock hit profitability for the first time since 2020, even as broadband keeps losing subscribers. The mix bolsters NBCUniversal’s standalone case ahead of its planned split from Comcast’s cable business.
Business Insider launches its own FAST channel, tapping Magnite for ad tech
BI is building a standalone FAST/CTV channel to complement its huge YouTube presence, using Magnite’s SpringServe for ad serving. It’s a bet that owned distribution and direct advertiser relationships beat platform reach alone.
Peacock’s ad yield per subscriber jumps 43% to $4.98 in Q2
Peacock’s monthly ad revenue per subscriber rose to $4.98, driving its first-ever profitable quarter. But growth leaned heavily on World Cup, NBA and Love Island scheduling that won’t repeat next quarter.
AI-made microdrama lands on Disney-backed DramaBox, no novelty label attached
Globavend’s AI-produced microdrama is streaming in DramaBox’s regular catalogue, not an experimental tab. As production gets cheap and abundant, power shifts further to platforms that control discovery and monetization, not to the content itself.
Ad tiers set to pass half of North American streaming revenue in 2026
Ampere Analysis expects ad-supported tiers to hit 54% of North American subscription streaming revenue by end of 2026, topping $45bn. Prime Video leads on ad revenue after its 2023 opt-out shift, showing where global streaming monetization is headed next.
Magnite exec: AI ad generation aims to bring millions of new advertisers to CTV
Magnite’s Jonathan Moffie, whose Streamer.AI was acquired last year, says AI-generated TV ads let anyone create a commercial from just a business name. The pitch: lower the barrier so SMBs flood into streaming TV advertising at scale.
Roku’s ad revenue jumps 25% ahead of Fox’s $22B buyout
Roku Q2 ad revenue hit $672.8M, up 25%, with subscriptions up 26% to $548.2M. The results arrive as Fox’s $22B acquisition awaits close, strengthening the case for a combined CTV ad powerhouse.
WBD ad revenue falls 22% in Q2 as NBA exit bites
Warner Bros. Discovery’s linear ad revenue dropped 22% to $1.7B, mostly from losing NBA rights, while streaming ad revenue grew 9% to $306M. Streaming remains the bright spot as linear erodes, even as net income fell 91%.
Broadband-first cable ops no longer sell the TV habit for broadcasters
Independent cable operators now market broadband, not video, removing free promotional reinforcement that once kept TV central to households. With retrans growth flattening too, local broadcasters must build viewing habits themselves instead of relying on distributor marketing.
NY Public Radio’s CEO on why local media must stop thinking in platforms
Christy Tanner says New York Public Radio treats podcasts, streaming, events and newsletters as one system, not separate businesses. A third of its audience already comes from outside the NY DMA — a model local broadcasters chasing growth could copy.
Ad tiers now drive 54% of North American streaming revenue: Ampere
Ampere Analysis projects ad-supported tiers will generate 54% of North American subscription streaming revenue in 2026, with ad revenue alone topping $18B. Prime Video’s opt-out model leads the pack, and P&G, Amazon and Walmart already drive 22% of impressions.
Ad tiers now drive over half of North American streaming revenue
Ampere Analysis projects ad-supported tiers will hit 54% of North American subscription streaming revenue in 2026, with ad revenue alone topping $18 billion.
Samsung Ads: 30% of India large-screen budgets now go to CTV
Samsung Ads’ Nishit Kanchan says CTV clients grew from 300 to 450 in India this year, on track for 600, as budgets shift from linear. Measurement stays fragmented, but programmatic already covers half of Samsung’s CTV mix.
NBCU strikes YouTube deal, folding Peacock into Premium subscriptions
Peacock content will be free to YouTube Premium subscribers, ceding the customer relationship in exchange for scale.